Aviation executive Jeffrey Menaged is offering a way for private jet users to offset the carbon emissions from their flights.
May 29, 2008
Inspired in part by his Jewish values, aviation executive Jeffrey Menaged is offering a way for high flyers to minimize their impact on the environment.
Menaged, who lives in Oakhurst, is the founder and chief executive officer of New York-based Chief Executive Air. The company offers private jets for charter, from small jets for regional flights to large planes for international travel. For those who prefer to fly in a plane of their own, it can organize that purchase, too.
According to Menaged, a two-hour flight burns approximately 600 gallons of fuel, the same amount an average person uses in a year driving a car.
This spring, he established a partnership with TerraPass, a retailer of carbon offsets and energy efficiency products. His clients now have the chance to balance the impact of any flight they take by purchasing verified carbon reductions that support clean energy projects like wind power, farm power that produces clean electricity from animal waste, and the capture of gas from landfills.
The idea is to help pay for efforts that reduce a consumer’s net climate impact.
“Air travel is responsible for three percent of worldwide carbon dioxide emissions and growing,” he said. “It’s crucial that we offer our customers this opt-in program so together we can play an active role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”
All the emissions reductions in the program come from projects sourced in the United States, and take place in the same year that they are purchased.
“We want to slow down our use of resources and repair the damage that has been done — and these are very real, tangible ways to do that,” Menaged said.
The price is no more than about $20 per hour added to a flight cost of around $2,500 per hour. So far, he said, the response has been lukewarm, but his goal is to have all his clients participate.
“I believe 100 percent opt-in is achievable. I think it’s a matter of information, and people having time to learn about the program,” he said. If, within a year, clients were not choosing to pay the extra charge, the company would probably build it into its costs, he said, but he would prefer to keep the optional element as an awareness-raising tool.
Critics suggest that the carbon offset programs only act to salve the conscience of those who travel in luxury, but the Sierra Club, among the large environmental groups, believes such programs have “merit” and has even created an offset program based on the model.
Born and brought up in Brooklyn, Menaged, 39, credits his Jewish upbringing with his environmental concern and his socially aware business practices. He and his family belong to Congregation Ohel Simcha in Oakhurst, and are Shabbat observant.
“I think this kind of consciousness is bred into us by our culture,” he said.
He added: “But this is also part selfish; it’s a way to avoid government regulation. If we can reduce our carbon footprint to zero, there’ll be no need for the government to step in to regulate us.”
Since TerraPass was launched in 2004, over 100,000 individuals, families, and businesses have opted into its program to balance out the global warming impact of their flying, driving, and home energy use. According to the company, cumulatively, its customers have reduced more than 800 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions. Every TerraPass offset purchase and marketing claim is audited according to standards set by the nonprofit Center for Resources Solutions, the creator of Green-e, a national energy certification program.
Menaged predicts that “green” travel will become a major factor in the next few years. As the cost of natural resources escalates, the price of conservation will become more acceptable — in terms of investment and consumer spending.
“The green resorts business is small now, but within the next five years, I think you’ll see it increase in a big way,” he said. “And it won’t just be resorts in the jungle; places in urban areas will be increasing their energy efficiency and focusing on things like the chemicals released by their laundries and the materials used in their construction.”
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